UPS says it will add overseas letter delivery to package service for its Europe customers
Express delivery company United Parcel Service, Inc. said Wednesday it would offer overseas letter delivery to its package customers in Europe.
The company would offer the new letter service in February _ expanding a test project begun in Britain to Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, UPS spokesman Georg Leusch said from the company’s German offices in Neuss.
“The numbers there have far exceeded our plans,” he said.
Leusch said letters would be collected unsorted in mail bags from customers and forwarded to foreign destinations by UPS’ partner, Swiss Post International.
He denied a German media report that the service was a move to win customers from domestic mail deliverers such as Deutsche Post AG. Deutsche Post retains a monopoly on domestic letter delivery until 2007.
Transport International
UPS launches European mail service
18 January 2006
Global express and mail carrier UPS has revealed that it is to commence international mail services in Europe. The new service will be established in February, building on a successful pilot project which involved moving mail between the UK and Belgium, Netherlands, France and Germany. The operation will involve collecting unsorted mail from customers and passing them on to the carrier’s postal partner, Swiss Post International.
However neither the company nor analysts think that UPS intends to enter into full blown competition with postal operators such as Deutsche Post. The service addresses only a very small part of the market although the fact that UPS has been successful to date shows that there could be potential to leverage its brand.
